IS THERE A GOVERNMENT IN SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka may be having a President, a Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, non cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and an administrative structure. However, it is obvious that the country does not have a government. If there is a government the country would not be in this position of non governance. During the PA regime there were many who thought that the PA was not capable of good governance. However, during that period whether good or bad there was some kind of government. Now the situation has deteriorated so much that the so-called ministers of the government do not know what they are talking.(They only talk) It is not only the UNF that is responsible for this sad situation. The President, the PA and the opposition are equally responsible for the state of affairs. If not for the fact that the ICC would not allow teams other than those already approved to participate in the forthcoming world cup, Sri Lanka would be taking another team appointed by Balasingham and Prabhakaran to South Africa and Zimbabwe next year. GL Peiris would have said "practical reality calls for participation of a cricket team appointed by the LTTE". It appears that according to this "eminent" lawyer there are many kinds of realities, practical reality being one of them. I would like to remind him that all these so called realities are creations of men and women (so called man in the abstract) and the "minister" is only trying to paint a picture where the presence of the LTTE has become a necessity. It is time that the President uses her executive powers to solve the crisis before India is forced to take action in order to make sure that there is stability in the region.
India has already come to the assistance of the EPDP and Douglas Devananda. The President is concerned about the situation with respect to the EPDP, but has not taken any action except requesting the Prime Minister to take up the matter in Oslo. According to the Sunday newspapers Delft Island is under LTTE seige. The terrorists want the withdrawal of the EPDP from the island. The EPDP that has being in the island for number of years cannot engage in political activities if Oslo gives into the LTTE demand saying that "practical reality calls for the withdrawal of the EPDP". Meanwhile the SLMM resorting to its usual baila (baila kiyanawa) has said that the people should have the right to engage in political activities and that both parties should respect this right. The SLMM wants the matter to be taken up at the "Oslo peace talks" meaning not the current Oslo circus but the next round (or session or whatever) of the "peace talks". The SLMM clearly protects the LTTE and tries to put the blame on the EPDP. It tries to pretend that it is impartial and that it wants to safeguard the rights of the people in the Delft Island. What the SLMM does not say is that it is the LTTE that is preventing the EPDP from engaging in political activities. By bringing the people as an abstract group that has no spokespersons the SLMM has shown once again that their mission is to clear the LTTE of all violations of the memorandum of capitulation described by them as the MOU. Even if the President is prepared to be satisfied with issuing statements and making requests to the Prime Minister to "take up the matter in Oslo" India would not be in a position to "stay neutral".
If this is the way that the LTTE treats the EPDP a party that has among its members elected representatives of the Tamils, how would they treat the Muslim parties or the Sinhala MPs representing the eastern province, once they are handed over the north and the east by the Norwegians with the blessings of Peiris Moragoda and Wickremesinghe. Where is the so-called democracy and pluralism preached by the minister Peiris to the others, in this particular instance? Where are the NGO's and their "intellectuals"? Is there anybody to organise a picket in front of the Fort railway station in order to agitate for the right of the EPDP to engage in political activities. Could the Peiris - Moragoda combination justify the LTTE position in terms of the infamous MOU signed in February. Would Moragoda start a telephone campaign on behalf of the LTTE, without allowing the other person to say what he or she feels about the situation and also of people who come from cyber space.
According to the news desk (Sinhala news bulletin on Sunday) of the Rupavahini India were to participate in the Oslo circus. However, the Sunday newspapers had announced that India would not take part in the circus but would send either the first secretary or the second secretary for the inauguration. The news broadcast by the Rupavahini is as empty as the Nestomalt cups kept on the table of the news readers. Does the Rupavahini think that they could fool the people all the time? On the otherhand to announce that India had decide to participate in the Oslo circus was an insult to our neighbour. In spite of the wiz kids from cyber space India could not be persuaded to take part in the circus. That had some repercussions and the USA delegation was to meet in a separate room leaving the centre of attraction to Peiris, Balasingham and Vida Hegelson, the Viking minister. We should appreciate the fact that India has decided not to attend the Oslo circus where the country would be auctioned. The so-called aid by a gang led by USA is nothing but money Wickremesinghe, Peiris and Moragoda would get on behalf of the country for selling part of the country to the LTTE. In this case the money is not paid by the LTTE but by the Anglo Saxon Christian countries and their Scandinavian running dogs that sponsor the LTTE and Tamil racism against Sinhalathva.
GL Peiris is in his element now. More than ten years ago I had observed his irrationality in the Senate of the University of Colombo and made comments, that were not appreciated by him or the others who thought of him then as a 'world renowned intellectual". Unable to meet my arguments all that he could do then was to accuse me of "Jathika Chinthanaya" and get the "Sunday Observer" and through its editorial staff to hire some third rate writers such as Anuruddha Thilakasiri to write on a "Jathika Chinthanaya" that they are not capable of understanding even today. In Sri Lanka we have an English educated class that used to boast of some of their members as the best in one or the other field, east of Suez canal. The canal now belongs to history, as far as travel is concerned, but unfortunately the Sinhala segment of this particular class, the most uncreative bunch east or west of Suez, continues to dominate the lives of the innocent Sinhala people of the country, though they are incapable of governing. Peiris in his borrowed wisdom has come out with the following at a recent press conference held in Colombo. I quote from the "The Island" of 22nd November 2002.
"Peiris addressing the weekly cabinet press briefing said that the development of the north east (there is no province by the name north east in this country, wonder whether he was referring to the north east monsoon - NdeS) was the responsibility of the government and it could not be abdicated. He pointed out that the NE was part of the sovereign territory. 'The practical situation is that it cannot be done without the participation of the LTTE'. Asked if the government is not giving legitimacy to the LTTE by this move, he answered 'that is not strictly correct'. The LTTE will not be involved in discussions on the whole of Sri Lanka and would only participate in discussions focussed exclusively on the NE, he said. Commenting on the general discussions, he pointed out that the LTTE 'obviously will not have a role' in them. 'There is no question of the role of the two parties being the same in the proceedings in Oslo' he said. However he added that it was 'incomplete' and 'unrealistic' not to involve the LTTE in these discussions." It is also reported that he has said in the Parliament that the LTTE would not be a part of the government team.
When Peiris appears to say that the development of the north and the east cannot be done without the participation of the LTTE he is not telling the truth. LTTE has no elected representatives and if not for their sponsors in the Christian west they would have been defeated long time ago. Is he trying to say that the north and the east could not be developed without the LTTE simply because they are armed (with the blessings of the western powers that do not insist on decommissioning of arms unlike in the case of IRA for example) then he is inviting the others to be armed for any kind of recognition. If the north and the east cannot be developed without the LTTE then one could say that the Hambantota District could not be developed without the JVP. Though the Norwegians paid a visit to Hambantota recently to deceive the people that they are taking an interest in the southern province as well (they could not fool the people and were met with demonstrations in Hambantota) Vida Hegelson would not invite the JVP leaders for the Oslo circus. Peiris has said that government could not abdicate the responsibility of developing the north and the east. There is nothing to abdicate as there is no government. The "ministers" may be globe trotting as VIPs but they are ministers only in name with Vida Hegelson running the show for the "government". Hegelson plays the role of the former colonial secretary in Britain and though being a mere minister wanted to meet the President when he cane to Sri Lanka last time. Quite correctly the President "did not have time" to meet this Viking minister (why should an executive head of state meet mere ministers from the east or the west?) and he had to go back to Oslo having learnt a lesson in Colombo.
When asked whether the government is giving legitimacy to the LTTE by taking them to the Oslo circus Peiris has said that "it is strictly not correct". What does he mean by the phrase strictly not correct. Has he resorted to "Catuskoti" logic having given up Aristotelian logic? Is it a way of saying it is both correct and not correct? In any event it must be correct though "it is strictly not correct". If it is correct then it only means that the LTTE is gaining some legitimacy out of the Oslo circus. In fact the only purpose of having this circus is to give legitimacy to the LTTE. When Peiris says that the LTTE would not have a role to play in the development of the other areas he simply recognises that the LTTE represents the north and the east leaving the other areas to the nominal government we have in the rest of the country. Peiris has said that the LTTE would not be a part of the government team. Obviously the LTTE represents the "administrative structure" in the north and the east that is independent of the so called government. As far as Peiris is concerned nothing is complete without Balasingham. The statement by Peiris to the Parliament only establishes that the "government" and the LTTE have been invited by the Vikings with equal status the two teams representing two different areas in the eyes of the Norwegians and the others.
The "government" is not in a position to do anything about the so-called police stations and courts in the north and the east set up by the LTTE. Would Vida Hegelson and his government in Norway allow the Laps to establish their own police stations and courts. Would Britain allow the Muslims to be tried under the "Sharya" law, let alone have separate courts for them? These are possible in Sri Lanka because there is no government in the country. The government has been Norwegianised. It is not peopolisation or privatisation as in the case of corporations and other such institutes but Norwegianisation. There is an administrative structure in the country that runs without a government but with interferences by the "ministers". The administrative structure should not be identified with the government. The Oslo circus would approve some "aid" to the "country", at least part of which would be spent without the approval of the Parliament, that has become a "talking shop", though not in a Marxist sense. This cannot go on and in the absence of a strong national movement of the Sinhala people, if the President does not take action, there is a possibility that the country would end up being Indianised.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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